Day three was much like day two in the Duffy trial – more trying to assert that there were no residency rules in the Senate, so as to absolve Duffy of having broken them under the letter of the law. Things later moved onto partisan activities, and the big feature everyone was talking about was the autographed photo of Harper and Duffy together, where Harper wrote that Duffy was his hardest-working and best appointment. Well, if he was hardest working, it was for party activities and not Senate business, as Duffy had a pretty lax attendance record for the two committees he sat on – a mere 55 percent, while a fellow PEI senator had 100 percent. So there’s that. It speaks to a willingness on Duffy’s part to do the Prime Minister’s bidding at the detriment of his own constitutional obligations as a senator, unlike other fundraisers that Harper appointed, such as Irving Gerstein, who chair committees and take those duties fairly seriously. And if Duffy couldn’t say “No, I have work to do,” when asked to do yet another party fundraisers, well, that reflects badly on him, doesn’t it? Rather unexpectedly, Patrick Brazeau and his lawyer showed up to watch, apparently taking notes on the proceedings, likely for the benefit of their own upcoming trial. Elsewhere, here’s a look at some of the other findings in the Duffy Diaries, including some backroom machinations in the caucus, some of the other observations of the day, and Nicholas Köhler’s write-up.

Good reads:

• References to Mike Duffy sharing Stephen Harper’s make-up artist have The Canadian Press scrambling to reconcile conflicting tales.
• The Conservatives have been picking a fight with Justin Trudeau’s late father lately.
• The number of requests for telecom data by law enforcement dropped dramatically after the Supreme Court said they needed warrants. Imagine that.
• Stephen Harper is off to the OAS meeting in Panama, where Cuba is being brought into the fold, and Venezuela is teetering on the edge of being a failed state.
• Joe Oliver downgraded his growth projections after meeting with private sector economists.
• The Federal Court challenge against Harper’s refusal to appoint new senators goes to trial at the end of the month.
• James Bowden writes about fixed election dates and party leaders seeking mandates.

Odds and ends:

The NDP are trying to hit back with the parliamentary resources charges, saying it was wrong for Trudeau to bring candidates to a caucus meeting. Not sure it’s the same, and the NDP have done it too, most recently with Linda McQuaig.

Here are ten “entitlements” given to Senators. Curiously, no comparison to MPs was included.

Honour guard sentries are back on guard at the National War Memorial, this time with the additional protection of contracted off-duty police officers.